Washington D.C. Legalizes Medical Marijuana

The nation’s capital made a pivotal move Tuesday for advocates of marijuana usage, passing a unanimous decision to legalize the drug for medicinal purposes.

The D.C. legal council agreed on the judgment and has since passed on the bill to Mayor Adrian Fenty who will have to attach his signature to the bill before it’s put through a 30 day congressional review period.

If it passes the 30 day period, the district will become the 15th jurisdiction to legalize marijuana for medical use.

Under the new law there will only be five centers allowed to distribute the product to patients suffering chronic ailments such as AIDS, cancer or glaucoma and the plants will be grown at registered cultivation centers.

There is also a federal order that the cultivation centers be further than 300 feet away from school zones and recreation facilities.

Patients who qualify will be limited to four ounces of marijuana a month, double the amount initially planned in the original legislation.

The Washington Post reports that D.C. has the highest percentage of marijuana use in the country with more than 11 percent of Washingtonians older than 26 reportedly smoking marijuana in the past year.